Annotation:Bonny Moor-Hen (The)
X:1 T:Bonny Moorhen, The M:6/8 L:1/8 R:Air B:Christie - Traditional Ballad Airs, vol. 2 (Edinburgh, 1881, p. 8) Z:AK/Fiddler's Companion K:Dmin G|Add (d>e)d|c>dc {c}=B2G|Add (d>e)d|c>=Bc d2G| Add d>ed |{d}c=BA (A>B)c|(=B<d)A AGF|TG>FG A2|| G|{G}F>ED D2D|E>DC C2C|{DE}F>ED D>ED|TF>EF A2G| {G}F>ED D>ED|E>DC C2 (D/E/)|{G}(F>E)D D>ED|TF>EF A2||
BONNY MOOR-HEN, THE. English, Scottish; Air (6/8 time). D Minor. Standard tuning (fiddle). AB. The title appears in Henry Robson's list of popular Northumbrian song and dance tunes, which he published c. 1800. Different airs have been used as the vehicle for the words. Christie's tune is different than the one printed by Hogg in Jacobite Relics, and it was also sung to "Baron of Leys (The)", as printed in Buchan's Ballads of the North vol. II (1828, p. 144). The words begin:
My bonny moorhen, my bonny moorhen,
She's up in the gray hill down in the glen;
It's when ye gang but the house, when ye gang ben,
Aye drink a health to my bonny moorhen.
My bonny moorhen's gane over the main,
And it will be simmer or she come again;
But when she comes back again, some folk will ken:
And joy be wi' thee my bonny moorhen.
Hogg thought the words an allegory for the Jacobite cause, but opined that a moorcock would be a better symbol than a moorhen, as the colors of the bird are supposed to allude to those in the tartans of the Clan-Stuart.
